The Official Charts Company has published the UK's the Official All-Time Debut Albums Top 20, and Meat Loaf's 1977 debut Bat Out Of Hell sits atop the list, having sold over 3.5million copies in the UK to date.
Debut albums by Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells), Oasis (Definitely Maybe) and Guns N' Roses (Appetite for Destruction) are also in the list, which is based on combined UK sales and streams since records began in 1956.
Perhaps curiously, the highest chart position achieved by Bat Out Of Hell, described by Classic Rock as "a perfect melange of 1950s teenage death ballads, Broadway pomp and head-caving hard rock", in the UK is number 8, in February 1979, 16 months after its October 1977 release. In America, the album never broke into the top 10.
1. Bat Out Of Hell – Meat Loaf (1977)
2. Back To Bedlam – James Blunt (2004)
3. Spirit – Leona Lewis (2007)
4. The Fame – Lady Gaga (2008)
5. No Angel – Dido (1999)
6. Spice – Spice Girls (1996)
7. Hopes And Fears – Keane (2004)
8. Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1994)
9. In The Lonely Hour – Sam Smith (2014)
10. Parachutes – Coldplay (2000)
11. Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield (1973)
12. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (2004)
13. Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman (1988)
14. + – Ed Sheeran (2011)
15. Come Away With Me – Norah Jones (2002)
16. 19 – Adele (2008)
17. Appetite for Destruction – Guns N’ Roses (1987)
18. Our Version of Events – Emeli Sandé (2012)
19. Definitely Maybe – Oasis (1994)
20. Hot Fuss – The Killers (2004)
The list was compiled in partnership with in partnership with National Album Day, which takes place tomorrow, October 15.
National Album Day artist ambassador Lia Metcalfe from The Mysterines recently compiled her list of the 13 greatest debut albums of all time for Louder: precisely none of the top 20 best-selling UK debuts made that list.
